/ ARTICLE/PHOTOS: Kendal Mountain Festival Report

Kevin Avery says,"It's that feeling many of us get when we're out in the mountains. "Never again," you might think but within 20 minutes of getting back to the car all the pain and misery is forgotten. Strange bunch aren't we? "

Alan James says,""Messner delivered a lecture that he had delivered many times before and didn't we know it."

Sarah Clough contemplated,""The author Kurt Vonnegut wrote that human beings are gregarious creatures who are not happy in nuclear families, and that we should surround ourselves with like minded people and 'create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.""

Mick Ryan as usual says too much.

We published the film competition results straight after the Festival, here is a report of the event from four UKClimbing.com reporters.

> Sarah Clough contemplated, "The author Kurt Vonnegut wrote that human beings...should surround ourselves with like minded people and 'create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured."

I've often mused over that, and thought that most of the time climbers have too much of a rogue instinct to act as a community. We behave more like we're in Fight Club than the supportive Alcoholics Anonymous-type community that Vonnegut had in mind.

> I've often mused over that, and thought that most of the time climbers have too much of a rogue instinct to act as a community. We behave more like we're in Fight Club than the supportive Alcoholics Anonymous-type community that Vonnegut had in mind.

You reckon? I suppose I think that climbers like the social side as a balance, something to come back to, but maybe don't want to ask for it. I think the 'like minded' bit is key - we don't really want to socialise with a group of drunk footballers or pop idol / x-factor obsessives, but do relish the opportunity to hang out with a large group of other climbers when it arises. Or perhaps we just want the best of both worlds! Kendal did seem to me to be a kind of proof that climbers fit Vonnegut's statement too.